Shuttle XPC SZ170R8 V2: Small but Powerful

Compact, efficient and incredibly powerful if you spring for the right parts, the Shuttle XPS SZ170R8 V2 has a lot going for it. The small form factor of the motherboard does not take away from its power. Even better is its capability as a portable machine.

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Student Council Presidents are usually those student leaders who are well-organized and have natural leadership skills. There are a lot of anime characters who have the traits to become an excellent Student Council President, so Charapedia asked which characters would make the best one. 10,000 people (46.2% male, 53.7% female) all voted for a total of...

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Low-cost Windows notebooks could beat the Chromebook on cost and functionality, Microsoft says.

It hasn’t been two years since the Netbook form factor, low-power ultra-portable notebooks, was killed off by most manufacturers and already Microsoft is advocating its return as a way to combat Google’s popular Chromebooks.

As The Verge reports from Microsoft’s partner conference, Kevin Turner, the company’s COO, announced that HP is planning on releasing a $199 Windows-powered laptop under a brand called “Stream” for the holiday season. Acer and Toshiba plan to do the same at the $249.99 price point.

The Toshiba notebook will have a 11.6-inch display, a 32GB solid state drive, while the Acer Aspire ES1 notebook will ship with a15.6 inch display and 500GB hard drive.

Turner also said that HP is planning on having a few Stream models on the market, some at a lower price point than $199. While Turner didn’t go into any specifics, he said that HP will launch a 7 and 8-inch version of the Steam PC at the $99 pricepoint.

“We are going to participate at the low-end,” The Verge quotes Turner as saying. “We’ve got a great value proposition against Chromebooks, we are not ceding the market to anyone.”

Microsoft is marketing the notebooks as tools to have the “full PC experience” with the user being able to run native and web apps, as well as the full version of Office.

Perhaps the Netbook was killed off too soon? Given the advancements Intel has made with its Atom lineup in the past two-years, the virtual rebirth of the formfactor should be better received than it was before.